The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE for short) 802.11 standard organization plans to formulate an Internet-of-Things (IoT for short) standard based on Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi for short) of a 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz frequency band, and basic features thereof are as follows: A station (STA for short) consumes less power, and an access point (AP for short) and the station can perform long-distance transmission between each other. For example, an expected transmission radius may reach 2 km, and long-distance transmission is mainly applied to a sensor network scenario, an industrial control scenario, or other scenarios. Specifically, a station may function as a relay. In other words, a relay station (relay STA) is used to implement the long-distance transmission between the access point and the station. For example, the relay station may be a device such as a sensor. In addition to relaying data for an edge station, the relay station also generates data and transmits data.
In an infrastructure (Infrastructure) wireless network, station power consumption has a near-far effect. Assuming that all stations have an equal initial quantity of electricity and an equal amount of to-be-transmitted data, after a period of time, a station that is more distant from an access point consumes more power than a station closer to the access point. The near-far effect of the station power consumption causes inconsistent station power consumption speeds. However, station power consumption speeds are expected to be substantially consistent, to facilitate replacement of a same batch of devices. Therefore, a problem of how to determine a station that functions as a relay in a same basic service set (BSS for short) to ensure that all stations have a substantially same power consumption speed urgently needs to be resolved.